Enhancing teaching skills and fostering critical reflective practices in the professional development of university teachers.

Over the last two decades or so, important new initiatives have been introduced into undergraduate education to advance learning. These initiatives bear witness to the fact that there are higher education professionals who are intimately interested in the transformation of approaches to teaching and learning in the academy (Chisholm, 2007; Costa & Kallick, 1993; O‘Banion, 1997; Wingspread Group on Higher Education, 1993). Some are also interested in thoroughgoing transformation of the teaching and learning through faculty development initiatives. Many of these innovative practices hold out great promise for real advances in student learning and even for changing the culture of higher education (Barr & Tagg, 1995; Smith, 2004). In this regard, reflective teaching and learning is important in professional development and for better teaching practices. The use of critical friends can also assist the processes of reflecting on teaching and learning from teaching and the overall advancement of teaching in higher education

Perspectives of Faculty on Student Evaluations of Teaching at an Anglophone Caribbean University

Student evaluations of teaching (SET) remain the most prominent and the primary source of data used to evaluate classroom teaching at many colleges and universities internationally (Cashin, 1999; Felten, Little & Pingree, 2004; Spooren, Brockx & Mortelmans, 2013; Zabaleta, 2007). This is also the case in the Anglophone Caribbean and at the leading research institution in the Anglophone Caribbean; the University of the West Indies, student evaluations of teaching remain the only method of the evaluation of the teaching of the faculty. Generally, from time to time, these evaluations are experienced as intrusive, invasive, frustrating and frightening (Ory, 2001). There are instances where faculty members become defensive and extremely protective of themselves and their pedagogy when poor evaluation results are communicated to them. Fink (2008) has asserted that the widespread use of SET is not driving instructional improvement; instead it is creating widespread cynicism about teaching evaluations

Counter-hegemonic pedagogy: Activism and the life of the organic intellectual

The continuing search for counter-hegemonic pedagogy is underscored. Aspects of the search are brought into the conversation and useful approaches for advancing emancipatory pedagogy are offered and discussed

Let Them be Free: Adult Education in an Underground LGBT Church in Jamaica

This study investigated the experiences of members of an underground LGBT church in Jamaica and their educational practices. In particular, to understand how they negotiated and navigated their identity in light of their spirituality and religious commitments in the context of a culture that was hostile to the LGBT community

It’s Slippery Out There’: Outsider\u27s Perspectives of the Navigational Skills of African American Undergraduates in a Predominantly White Midwestern University

In this qualitative research study conducted at a predominantly white institution in the Midwest USA, thirteen successful African American college students were interviewed about their in-class and out-of-class experiences at the institution. The research focus was how they were experiencing college and how they were navigating the higher education terrain. The results provided evidence of an exclusionary curriculum, racial and microagressions, verbal abuse, problematic psychosocial environment and yet the defying of the odds to survive and thrive

In class and out of class experiences of African American undergraduates at a predominantly white midwestern university

The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to investigate the in-class and out-of-class experiences of undergraduate African American traditional-aged college students who were on a "success" path at a predominantly White campus in the Midwestern USA. It provided the opportunity for the voices of the participants to be heard. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to identify thirteen research participants. A semi-structured interview format enabling conversational interview was used.Findings suggested that the students' experiences were multifaceted and multilayered. They had to contend with racial microaggressions and verbal abuse. This called on their resilience occasioning the expending of psychic energy and extending of the self to cope. The experience of racism clearly suggested that the educational environment was not totally welcoming and supportive of African Americans as, These experiences consisted of discrimination, stereotyping, verbal assaults, and treatment that suggested that the African Americans had major deficits as persons. In the second place, the students described experiences in which they defied the odds. Hence surviving and thriving became an apt metaphor that captured the contours of the experience. Respondents described the importance of investing in the Black community, utilizing the networking opportunities, fellowshipping with friends, family and faculty, and developing disciplined approaches to life as important in the quest to survive and to thrive. In the third place, they also described college as a place where their lives were sculpted, and where they were sculpted for life. This theme was expanded through descriptions depicting college as a place that allowed for the defining, refining, and redefining of the self. They also encountered and came to value diversity, benefited from immersive learning and were challenged to balance and to learn to manage their lives as efficient stewards.The finding that elevated the use of Black community organizations and networking opportunities as counter and recuperative spaces and particularly the importance of body pedagogy in those spaces has value for ongoing research. Further, in negotiating college students had to balance their lives, employing folk wisdom or practical intelligences developed from their socialization in their families and the Black community.Thesis (D. Ed.)Department of Educational Studie

In class and out of class experiences of African American undergraduates at a predominantly white midwestern university

The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to investigate the in-class and out-of-class experiences of undergraduate African American traditional-aged college students who were on a "success" path at a predominantly White campus in the Midwestern USA. It provided the opportunity for the voices of the participants to be heard. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to identify thirteen research participants. A semi-structured interview format enabling conversational interview was used.Findings suggested that the students' experiences were multifaceted and multilayered. They had to contend with racial microaggressions and verbal abuse. This called on their resilience occasioning the expending of psychic energy and extending of the self to cope. The experience of racism clearly suggested that the educational environment was not totally welcoming and supportive of African Americans as, These experiences consisted of discrimination, stereotyping, verbal assaults, and treatment that suggested that the African Americans had major deficits as persons. In the second place, the students described experiences in which they defied the odds. Hence surviving and thriving became an apt metaphor that captured the contours of the experience. Respondents described the importance of investing in the Black community, utilizing the networking opportunities, fellowshipping with friends, family and faculty, and developing disciplined approaches to life as important in the quest to survive and to thrive. In the third place, they also described college as a place where their lives were sculpted, and where they were sculpted for life. This theme was expanded through descriptions depicting college as a place that allowed for the defining, refining, and redefining of the self. They also encountered and came to value diversity, benefited from immersive learning and were challenged to balance and to learn to manage their lives as efficient stewards.The finding that elevated the use of Black community organizations and networking opportunities as counter and recuperative spaces and particularly the importance of body pedagogy in those spaces has value for ongoing research. Further, in negotiating college students had to balance their lives, employing folk wisdom or practical intelligences developed from their socialization in their families and the Black community.Department of Educational StudiesThesis (D. Ed.